Celebrating Greyhawk: A Fandom Renaissance - GaryCon XI Seminar

On Friday afternoon last week, I co-hosted a seminar panel discussion at GaryCon XI entitled, "Celebrating Greyhawk—A Fandom Renaissance."  Our panel had a great time discussing past, current, and future fan works, projects, and plans centered on The World of Greyhawk, across all editions, eras, and versions. 

Seminar Topics

The seminar brought together six long-time Greyhawk fans, each discussing different aspects of fan engagement with the Greyhawk setting:

• Kristoph Nolen kicked off the seminar, starting at 4:00.
• Mike Bridges (starting at 9:00 to 14:20) spoke to his writings, art, and cartography as seen via his Greyhawkery blog, his creative work on Ull, his W.o.G. comic (showcased weekly-ish on Facebook by Bryan), and Castle Greyhawk comic (written by Scott Casper with Mike's artwork), and his recent work with Anna Meyer on their Legends & Lore show on the Greyhawk channel (live on Twitch, reruns on YouTube)
• Allan Grohe (me, starting at 15:00 to 27:55) shared some of my favorite Greyhawk researchers and their "deep dives" into the setting's lore, in particular the work of bloggers like Timrod's T1 Moathouse-DMG Sample Dungeon-B2 analysis, Scott “scottsz” Szczypiorski for his Cold Text Files work on WG4 Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, and Scott Casper and Mike Bridges' Castle Greyhawk web comic, among other topics.  You can also download my "Greyhawk Fandom - The Deep Cuts" presentation in PDF format.
• Anna Meyer (starting at 28:40 to 53:20) spoke about her long-term love for and engagement with the cartography of the Greyhawk setting, including the Flanaess Geographical Society and her Patreon---Anna is the only panelist who's full-time day-job focuses on games-related work; Anna also spoke about Creative Commons licensing
• Carlos Lising (starting at 54:20 to 1:10:22) discussed how to publish and share your Greyhawk home content, with an emphasis on the challenges around self-publishing for Greyhawk based lessons learned via his casl Entertainment publishing company and Patreon
• Bryan Blumklotz (starting at 1:11:06 to 1:30:45) spoke about the dynamics of building, growing, maintaining, and managing fan communities, how to help encourage Greyhawk fans to tap into the wealth of resources that are available today; Bryan co-administers the Canonfire!  Facebook group, and also creates fabulous Greyhawk Heraldry (which we didn't discuss much during the seminar, but which is featured throughout Anna's maps as well as OJ28 and its handouts!)
• Kristoph Nolen (starting at 1:31:45 to 1:49) wrapped up our presentations with his vision for GreyhawkOnline's role in the Greyhawk fan community, including the Greyhawk Wiki, fan space on GHO (both current and legacy fan sites), and the Oerth Journal, among other topics
• Q&A conclude the session, starting at 1:49.

I recorded the audio for the seminar and posted it to my site at http://www.greyhawkonline.com/grodog/greyhawk-seminar-garycon-2019-03-08.mp3.  A transcript for the session will also available once I get that generated.  If I get ambitious, I'll carve up each segment so that you can drop back into the seminar wherever you'd like to do so, but until that time, I've placed time-markers in our section notes above.

GaryCon also recorded audio/video for the session, and it is available on YouTube on Luke Gygax's YouTube channel @ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sCfI_zFaVZE:

 

The GaryCon event description for the seminar is at
https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xi/schedule/355 and if you're curious I wrote a little more about the seminar's background in my January update to my Charting the Flanaesss: a Settlements Distance and Mileage Chart project, too.

 

Seminar Video Content

Jay "Lord Gosumba" Scott and DMShane of the Greyhawk Channel also provided videos for the seminar.  Unfortunately we ran out of time and weren't able to share them live, but through the magic of the internet you can view them both:

• Jay built a 1:48 trailer for the 16-hour streaming charity event on 23 March 2019 from 08:00 to 23:59.  His crew will be running through an epic Greyhawk-based Stories of the Orb of Dragonkind campaign, in four parts:
  • Part 0 - The Prelude discussion for the event appears on Jay's Gabbin Show on Sunday, 17 March at 7:30 PM EDT at https://www.twitch.tv/lordgosumba
  • Part 1 - 8am-Noon EDT (on 23 March):  begins with @Giantstomp DMing in the Bandit Kingdoms at https://www.twitch.tv/wickedstudiosllc
  • Part 2 - Noon-4pm EDT: continues with @DM Marco DMing in the Shield Lands at https://www.twitch.tv/events/qJMDAokrRZCDOd5tBEb3RQ
  • Part 3 - 4pm-8pm EDT: continues with @NPCBree DMing at https://www.twitch.tv/greyhawkchannel
  • Part 4 - 8pm-Midnight EDT: concludes with Jay DMing in Greyhawk City and the Cairn Hills at https://www.twitch.tv/events/86YMUYR1TXKz7eSLRlgBtw
  
  There are two ways to Donate:  through Bits (Cheers) or using the Donate button on each Twitch Channel. All monies raised throughout the event will benefit the St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital.



• DMShane hosts the Greyhawk Channel, and he built a 5:23 trailer to provide a quick introduction and overview for the many shows on Twitch, (and you can watch the non-live broadcasts on the Greyhawk Channel on YouTube as well)

 

Oerth Journal 28!

At the seminar, we also debuted the newest issue of the Oerth Journal #28, and distributed 100 copies in print for free to the attendees of the seminar and other folks at the show.  This is the first time that the OJ has been published as a print project!  

Oerth Journal #28 cover -
cartography by Anna Meyer,
artwork by W. Kristoph Nolen,
heraldry by Bryan Blumklotz

The seminar participants each contributed expanded material inserted to the OJ print edition, with some new/overflow content appearing online only (not in the print booklet/handouts):

• Flanaess Maps – by Anna B. Meyer
• Greyhawk Heraldry – by Brian Blumklotz
• Map and Adventure Hooks for Ull – by Mike Bridges
• Erastoriûl Ka’arndrik: a 1e drowic sage of Erelhei-Cinlu – by Allan T. Grohe Jr.

In addition, OJ28 also includes these articles:

• Order of Ulek: Founding and Synposis – by Jay Scott
• State of the Bandit Kingdoms – by William Dvorak
• Order of Ulek: The Shield Lands – by Jay Scott
• Trading Card Style Artwork – by Jeffrey B. Garrison
• Rhennee Rumors from Up and Down the River – by W. Kristoph Nolen with the Oliver Brothers
• The Great Flanaess River Adventure – by the Oliver Brothers with W. Kristoph Nolen
• Cultists of Tharizdun – comic by Mike Bridges
• The Cerulean Cyst – by Carlos Lising, an AD&D 1e adventure set in the Cairn Hills
• The Wall – by Denis “Maldin” Tetreault, an AD&D encounter area
• Greyhawk Reborn Introduction – by Dave Guerreri
• The Greyhawk Channel – by W. Kristoph Nolen
•  Flanaess Distance Chart – by Allan T. Grohe Jr.

Lastly, the submitted materials included a lot of "overflow" content that could not possibly fit into the print issue.  

For full details, see https://greyhawkonline.com/seminar/ (and note the upcoming 24th anniversary of the OJ in May 2019, too!). 

Thank You!

We'd like to thank all of the fans who attended the seminar, who expressed interest in the recordings and the Oerth Journal content afterward, and who have helped make Greyhawk into one of the most-fun worlds to game in over the years!

Bryan, Mike, Allan, Carlos, Anna, and Kristoph.