25 March 2021

grodog's GaryCon XIII Schedule - 25-28 March 2021

I'll be scarce the next several days as I'm running and playing games at GaryCon Gaming Convention XIII.   

It's going to be a great convention again!---good times to be discovered, dice to be rolled, monsters to be put to the sword, and treasures to be looted! =)




My schedule is full of fun this year!:

Thursday, 25 March

  • Noon-5pm:  DM for grodog's Castle Greyhawk:  I'm running either my "Four Way Hub Level" or "Escape from Level 14" level, based on the players' selection.  My 13 year-old son Henry will be playing in this session, which is always fun =)

  • 7pm-Midnight:  Player in Rich Frank's "Lost Temple of Set" dungeon, where we seek to recover the fabled Eye of Horus:

    The party has traveled through a jungle to locate an ancient and forgotten Temple of the God, Set. Set has not been worshipped in any notable or public way in centuries, most of the old temples having been thrown down and replaced with temples to other Gods. However, Set, being a major God, has been able to maintain a cult of worshippers despite being forced out of the consciousness of most of the population in this world.

    The motivation for the characters is to find the fabled Eye of Horus, a large piece of jade in the shape of a pointed oval, with the symbol of the Eye of Horus carved into it, and inlaid with gold. Among the purported properties of the Eye is the ability to roll back time and view what happened in the area the Eye is currently placed. (More on this in the description of the Eye of Horus at the end of this document.) Indeed, the characters have traveled here to find the Eye, as part of a larger investigation to find who/what abducted the daughter of a great King of the Realm.

Friday, 26 March

  •  9am-2pm:  DM for grodog's Castle Greyhawk:  I'm running either my "Four Way Hub Level" or "Escape from Level 14" level, based on the players' selection.  Henry may co-DM this one with me, we'll see....

  • 7-11pm:  Player in Carlos Lising's "The Nine":  for good or ill, this will be livestreamed on Twitch as we attempt to right wrongs in the fallen Great Kingdom

Saturday, 27 March

  •  1-6pm:  Player in Les Reno's "Death Master's Gambit":  Dead Men Tell No Tales, although they do blackmail with some regularity, it seems.  Our PCs will seek to eliminate the blackmail at the source, somewhere in the Wild Coast....

  • 8pm-Midnight:  Player in Eli Elder's "The Dream of Oudvarr" for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea.  This'll be fun, since Henry and I are playing in the game together!  Our characters will be entering the mind of an ice-bound sorcerer, what could possibly go wrong?!?  =)

Sunday, 28 March

  • 8am-1pm:  Player in Gaetano LeFavi's "Unhallowed Halls of the Sorcerer King"---we'll be exploring an alt-lair of Acererak's before he settled into his final digs in the Tomb of Horrors.  What could possible go wrong?!?

  • 1-5pm:  DM for Paul Stormberg's "Legends of Roleplaying" tourney this year, "Into the City of Brass" by Rob Kuntz.  This is the continuation of the "(To the) City of Brass" tourney I played in 1987 at DragonCon #1, when I first met Rob.  Looks like a tough challenge to complete in four hours to me!

  • 7-10pm:  "Greyhawk: Ask the Experts & Campaigns" livestreamed seminar I'm co-hosting with Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, Denis "Maldin" Tetreault, and other guests; it caps off the Greyhawk track that's been running throughout the convention this year. 


Remembering Gary Gygax and Other Friends

While this year marks the second year that GaryCon has been virtual, that doesn't meant that we can't raise a toast in the memory of Gary Gygax, without whom it would never have brought us together:


"Late Night with LEGIO V" t-shirt verso,
by Rich Franks


2021 also marks the first GaryCon that Brian Sloan is no longer with us to enliven our games with his acerbic wit, quick-thinking explosive engagement, and staring glares of "WTF?!?"  

We remember you in games and quips past, Brian! =)

 

From L to R:  Dex Briggs, Brian Sloan, Keith Sloan at GaryCon in 2016
(smoking selfie by Keith Sloan)


What I love most about GaryCon is the many friends I see each year, and the friendships that I have today that wouldn't exist without it (or the games that brought us all together). 

Allan.

22 March 2021

Canonfire! Postfest XIX - Greyhawk's Drowic Underworld - deadline to submit 15 April 2021

As announced by Gary Holian (PSmedger) on Canonfire!


Drow by Bill Willingham, in
TSR's D1-2 Descent into the Depths of the Earth (1981)



It's been a long time coming, but due to popular demand, Canonfire has decided to revive the Postfests!

What is a Postfest? A Postfest is a shared design project where members of Canonfire (or anyone who wishes to participate) agree to write articles on the same topic.  They are turned in by a deadline, then shared all at once.  Reading and goodness ensues.

For example, here was a Postfest on Villains from the early days of Canonfire: http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=18

Inspired by this weekend and Lord Gosumba’s fundraiser topic, “Underdark Uprising”, this Postfest will focus on Greyhawk’s Underdark. We’ll use a broad definition of the Underdark that includes hollows within mountains (i.e. Slerotin’s tunnel), caverns below the earth (i.e. Vault of the Drow), the Rift Canyon, and ancient underground ruins upon which new cities have been built (i.e. Narwell). 

Topic ideas might include:

  • New or Existing Entrances to the Underdark
  • Mysterious Places in the Underdark
  • Underdark Races and Monsters
  • Ecology of the Underdark and Wilderness Survival
  • NPCs from the Underdark
  • Magical Items or Artifacts that focus on the Underdark


We’ve made a few changes to the traditional Postfest:

  1. First, we won’t be voting on the submissions anymore. It's all in good fun, but if people want to give writers some feedback, I’m sure they’d love it. 

  2. Second, we’re going to post the submission to Canonfire as usual, but we also plan to compile all the submissions into a Greyhawk Underdark PDF that will be available for everyone to download.  We are considering compiling some of the old Postfests, likewise.

  3. Third, if you participate, we are thinking of giving back some suitable loot (perhaps a printed copy of the PDF) for some randomly selected participants, or everyone if we can swing it.


Due date is March 19th*, about a month from now,  a week before Gary Con.  Any questions, send them to psmedger@canonfire.com

 

* The editors extended the submission date to 15 April 2021, given the overlap with GaryCon's Greyhawk-heavy tracks.

If you're looking for submission ideas to riff off of, check the Dragonsfoot "Mapping the Depths of the Earth" project, which is also coordinated by Denis "Maldin" Tetreault at http://melkot.com/locations/underdark/underdark.html.  You can also read through previous postfests on Canonfire!.

My submission will be a drowic trading hub, and is 1725 words to date, with probably another 1000 or so to go in tables and such before it's done.  We'll see....

Allan.