First up, demons: they're based on elementals now, so hows that going to work? Keep them the same, just say "the Bar-lgura is totally a corrupted earth elemental" in core, and then take that away in Greayhawk? Or are they going o make new, elemental demons? If so, are they a new breed, or new tanar'ri, or what? Maybe the Abyss has now begun to spawn them as a new, better evolution of Demonkind. Well, there is another thing that goes along with Abyssal change, and that's the death of Demogorgon. Some Dungeon campaigns are canon, like Age of Worms, and it will be interesting to see if Demogorgon is dead in 4E, as posed at the end of the Savage Tide. If so, the ecology of the Abyss will surely change, and power will be changed, too. Who will be the new Prince of all Demons? It was suggested that it be Obox-ob, but he is only so well known. However, an obyrith ruling one again would certainly facilitate change, and maybe this will make obyriths major players, and the elementals are new tanr'ri who can fight against them. If Grazz't or Orcus rules, then the tanar'ri will still thrive, though they will definitely be changed (hell, Grazz't might become an arch-devil; he's more into plotting and deception than just killkillkill). However, if the first and most powerful tanar'ri is destroyed, then a new (actually, old) player could rise: the Queen of Chaos. Maybe the new elemental demons are her new creations, new weapons.
Another set of things is the Good outsiders: are they only angels now? If so, what cataclysm changed it? The Guardinals aren't core, so they might be gome from Greyhawk. Archons are elemental, and not necessarily good. Did this change come about in the same elemental cataclysm that made elemental demons, and it hit the CE and LG planes? Or are these archons just an "evolution," too, though in core, we know they can be evil and will serve the Princes of Elemental Evil. And finally, eladrin. The eladrin in core are cousins of the elves now, so what will they be in Greyhawk's planar configuration? That cuts out all of the Good outsiders but angels!
Maybe they'll balance cutting them all out by cutting out Yugoloths or Demodands. Which would leave Angels as the beings of Good, and Devils as the beings of Evil (Archons and demons I'm counting as opposing elemental forces right now). But what about the other outsiders? We know Slaads will still exist, but will they still just be lunatics? If alignment is being changed, will they just be free and wandering throughout the planes, implanting eggs in beings but not truly interfering? And what about Mechanus beings: will they still just be the Inevitables, or will they put Modrons back in? We'll see, and we may see changes from a cataclysm.
Most of these changes seem to be rule dependent to me and not that much lore depended (as in they came in because people thought about changing the rules and not changing Greyhawk/D&D lore).
Of course I am saying this because I also found it hard to explain transitions from 2nd to 3rd also and we ended up in my game groups saying "it has always been like that.". I am not in favor of half-solutions and if indeed we analyze things like gnome has then I am not really sure I can come up with any non-cataclysmic solutions for it...And the concept of something like a spellplague or other major apocalypse that seems like it was quickly put together to facilitate game version migration simply finds me laughing (admittedly with my knowledge of it up to now).
The quickest solution I would find was that things had always been that way. And work my way from there...Most Greyhawk people wont be affected by that because their planar lore would be sub-par anyway (Farmer Joe might know the words Devil and Angel and that is it - perhaps know of a few deities besides Beory).
Those who studied and read about these things depended on other peoples writings which again could be wrong. Think about how many religions are in effect in our world today...Which one is the right one? In fact I could make a whole campaign arc out of this if I worked along the way of the followers of Tharizdun actually ensuring a skewered history and planar lore to keep their agenda hidden. The world thinks that the universe behaves in way A and so the Big T is kept in planar prisons but in fact the Universe behaves in way B and the Tharizdunians have been gnawing the shackled lords chains for millennia past...
So the problem then boils down to those who HAVE traveled the planes and have met these creatures. The first is very likely for parties with long drawn campaigns and the second is extremely likely in a world where both Iuz AND the Ivids brought down all manner of nasties in the material plane....And this is where I will concentrate my research for a good solution should it be necessary...I still have not seen the full extend of the changes so I am keepign my creative juices for my ongoing campaigns right now...I will try and post something later on about this train of thought...But I expect this solution will be heavily depended on each DMs particulars...I for one keep the planar travels as something major in my campaigns so I wont have much trouble convincing my players but someone who constantly uses Sigil in their Greyhawk campaign as a stop between adventures will have much more work than I do...
Besides I am guessing that my munchkin players will oppose the transition to 4E for a while...They got too many book sin their hands still to try out and min max their stats
Pretty much all of the classic planar adventures wrt Greyhawk are on weird demiplanes anyway, with no connection to the Great Wheel. Sure, you've got Q1 and the Abyss, but there's no need for the Astral plane at all in that - it's just the Demonweb. Or indeed anything more about the Abyss.
And Paizo lost their "I care about canon" status when they put the Isle of Dread in Greyhawk. I think it's cool. I'm happy to have it there, but it's a bit disingenious to say "I care about canon" and then put something from a different world into Greyhawk.
Cheers!
And Paizo lost their "I care about canon" status when they put the Isle of Dread in Greyhawk. I think it's cool. I'm happy to have it there, but it's a bit disingenious to say "I care about canon" and then put something from a different world into Greyhawk.
Amen.
And Paizo lost their "I care about canon" status when they put the Isle of Dread in Greyhawk. I think it's cool. I'm happy to have it there, but it's a bit disingenious to say "I care about canon" and then put something from a different world into Greyhawk.
Oh, I don't know. I quite like the idea of many different worlds having an Isle of Dread!