QuoteGreyhawk may be in a "gray" area.

Heard a rumor the other day that Gygax had just enough clout or legal claim before he died such that there can never be a 4th edition version of Greyhawk. Something about him not liking the direction that D&D was going. I always wondered why Greyhawk was pushed any more than it was during the D&D 3.X era.

Quote from: RPGPundit;340818Has anyone else ever heard this? Does anyone have any proof?

QuoteBy the terms of his settlement with TSR, Gygax kept the rights to Gord the Rogue as well as all D&D characters whose names were anagrams or plays on his own name (for example, Yrag and Zagyg).[129] However, he lost the rights to all his other work, including the world of Greyhawk and the names of all the characters he had ever used in TSR material. Mordenkainen, Robilar, Tenser and Melf—to name a few—no longer belonged to Gary Gygax, Rob Kuntz, Ernie Gygax and Luke Gygax; their fictional lives were now controlled by TSR.

QuoteThe dungeons of Greyhawk revealed
In its 1986 Summer Mail Order Hobby Shop catalogue, TSR had listed a new Greyhawk adventure called WG7 Shadowlords, a high-level adventure to be written by Gary Gygax and Skip Williams.[137] However, this adventure was cancelled after Gygax left TSR, and the catalogue number WG7 was reassigned to a new adventure, Castle Greyhawk, released in 1988. It was the first new Greyhawk adventure in three years, but players buying the adventure hoping to be finally ushered into Gygax's famous dungeons discovered it had nothing to do with Gygax's original Castle Greyhawk. Instead, it was a compilation of 12 humorous dungeons levels, each one written by a freelance author. The puns and jokes often referenced modern culture—the Amazing Driderman, King Burger, Bugsbear Bunny, and the crew of Star Trek—while the appearance of Mordenkainen in a movie studio seemed to mock Gygax and his time spent in Hollywood trying to land a movie deal for TSR.

QuoteIn 1990, TSR decided that the decade-old world of Greyhawk needed to be refreshed. Rather than expanding beyond the boundaries of the Flanaess to develop new lands and new stories, the decision was made to stay within the Flanaess and instead, move the campaign timeline forward a decade, from 576 CY to 586 CY, in order to provide the setting for a new storyline.

The main story vehicle to move the timeline forward would be a war fomented by Iuz that would embroil the entire Flanaess, a device that would allow TSR to radically alter the pattern of regions, alliances and rulers from Gygax's original vision.

QuoteHowever, WotC's CEO, Peter Adkison, was a fan of both D&D and Greyhawk, and two major initiatives were created: a revival of Greyhawk, and a new (third) edition of D&D rules. A team of people was put together to revive the moribund Greyhawk setting by pulling together all the previously published information about the campaign setting. Once that was done, the decision was made to update Carl Sargent's storyline, and in much the same way as Sargent had done, using "prequel" adventures to pave the way for the new campaign setting.

QuoteWotC Greyhawk releases
Despite the popularity of the Living Greyhawk campaign, WotC did not produce much material for Greyhawk after the 25th anniversary "Return to..." series of adventures mentioned above, other than the Living Greyhawk Gazetteer and Fright at Tristor. The Standing Stone (2001) by John D. Rateliff did have several minor references to the Greyhawk setting, and Red Hand of Doom (2006) by James Jacob contained instructions for where to set the adventure within the world of Greyhawk (as well as for Forgotten Realms and Eberron). Otherwise, WotC left the development of the Greyhawk world to RPGA's Living Greyhawk campaign and concentrated on producing more source books of new expansion material for the core rules of D&D.

QuoteSince the launch of D&D 4E in 2008, WotC has not published any further official material for the World of Greyhawk setting.

Quote from: Abyssal Maw;3408514th Edition Village of Hommlet. Argument over.

Quote from: Koltar;340860Dude, its not an "argument".

There is nothing to be 'over'.

It was a report /re-telling of a rumor I recently heard.

Jeez!! Talk about knee-jerk defense of  4th/e (?) when I wasn't even going there....

Quote from: The Shaman;340867Actually I heard that Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, and Jim Ward now have control over Gary Gygax's retained publishing rights to Greyhawk, and it will be republished in a new folio edition with Gail Gygax's blessing sometime in 2010. The notes will be compatible with both OSRIC and Swords and Wizardry apprently (yes, including the ascending AC scale).

As I understand it, the printing costs are being fronted by Bob Bledsaw's estate.

Quote from: ggroy;340868Is this satire or for real?  

(The context is not obvious).

Quote from: ggroy;340868Is this satire or for real?  

(The context is not obvious).

Quote from: Thanlis;340870Mentzer, Kask, and Ward are doing something. I hadn't heard it was Greyhawk.

Quote from: The Shaman;340871As sorely tempted as I am to let this go viral, yes, it was satire.The most convincing deceptions are seeded with truth.

Quote from: Garnfellow;340900I'm pretty skeptical about the rumor, but it's worth noting that even without having any rights at all to the Greyhawk property, Gary still would have been in a position to at least impede development of 4e Greyhawk: "Grumpy creator disavows new version of Greyhawk" is not exactly the PR copy any company would want to risk, not when there are plenty of other worlds that could be developed for the new edition.