virtual Greyhawk Con 4 - grodog's convention report

It has been a quiet summer for From Kuroth's Quill, and with good reason:  for those not already aware, I've been laid off by Amazon Web Services as part of their "return to office" (or RTO) policy, so I've been pretty distracted from Greyhawk and fun in general the past few months.  My last day shifted around a bit, but my time with AWS concluded on Wednesday, 27 September, so I've had a couple of weeks to destress and work some of that angst out of my system.  

And I'm happy to say that virtual Greyhawk Con #4 this past weekend played a good part in that process!

virtual Greyhawk Con logo and dates: 6-8 October 2023

I have not squeezed so much gaming into a three-day weekend since the early days of GaryCon and the North Texas RPG Con!---I played in three games, DM'd three games, and closed out the convention in the "Ask the Experts" roundtable once more, and my brain is very full!:

Image from Gary Larson's _The Far Side_.

Here's a quick rundown of my events and activities:

Friday - 6 October 2023:  a Great Start

I kicked off the convention DMing my "Halls of the Iron Golems" level from my version of Castle Greyhawk.  Here's the initial draft of the dungeon level map:

"Halls of the Iron Golems" dungeon level map,
by Allan Grohe (grodog)

An eight-PCs crew entered the level through the SW corner stairs, where they were soon ambushed by a trio of extortionistic ogre magi, led by a shaman with a giant amphisbaena snake familiar (who said snake charm was never useful, hmmmm?).  They also explored a strange astronomical/astrological chamber filled with many tempting gemstones embedded in the walls (but not so tempting that they got distracted from their mission and began prying them out!).  They also explored several of the adjacent chambers and halls.  Fun was had by all.

In my evening game, I played in Carlos Lising's casl Entertainment adventure, The Amphora Ekphrasis, a sequel to last year's "The 9" (I played a 1/1 female halfling druid/thief named Snow, which was a different PC from my 1st level human cleric last year).  We managed to secure for our down-on-its-luck-sounds-too-good-for-how-down-it-is home base named Bulkwark---a Great Depression-era Keep on the Borderlands.  

We invaded an old ruined site that had been claimed by orcs, seeking a decanter of endless water for our cohorts at Bulwark.  As it turns out, the site (and it's relic decanter) was originally sacred to Lirr, goddess of prose, poetry, literature, and art.  After a few battles and some well-played tactics from the group, we prevailed and accomplished our mission.  The quality and type of liquid produced by the decanter varied by the quality of the prose pages sacrificed by placing them within the decanter; solid workmanlike texts produce clear, clean water, while more esoteric and moving works could produce holy water and potions.  

As always, Carlos ran a great game, and the rest of the players were a joy to play with, as we explored Carlos' post-canon setting Great Kingdom during the early 600s CY.  If you'd like to watch the replay, Carlos has it on Twitch stream at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1944576093:

The Amphora Ekphrasis crew in action!

Saturday - 7 October 2023:  Long-Haul Fun

I played or ran games from 9am to 11pm on Saturday, with a one-hour break for dinner from 6-7pm.  That's definitely the longest stretch of continuous gaming I've done in quite awhile.  Fortunately my voice didn't give out, and my brain wasn't fried by the time I began DMing in the evening :D

The day kicked off with my 9am to 2pm session DM'd by Mike "Von Molkew" Mossbarger's Mystery in Midmeadow event, during which our high-level party of agents of the Nyrondal King Lynwerd discovered that recent attacked in the area were precipitated by an hitherto-thought-mythical race of evil known as the drow!  Conspiring against the drow were the also unknown rockseer elves, who we were able to secure as allies against the drow.  

Much fun was had by all, and Mike does a great job handling the setting lore (we discovered the underworld source for the Franz River at Crystal Springs, too!), as well as presenting a very engaging game using maps and graphics on Owlbear Rodeo:

Collage of Mystery at Midmeadow maps,
 by Michael Mossbarger

 

During my next game, which ran from 2-6pm, Curtis Cable ran "Fell Tidings at Willow Blight Abbey"---a reskinning of the classic module B5 Horror on the Hill by Doug Niles.  We played 4-6th level PCs invading a humanoid-occupied ruined abbey located in the Jotens, to stop the destruction of a holy helm sacred to Heironeous.  

Curtis also ran a fun game steeped in Greyhawk and AD&D lore---the abbey forces were led by a shaman of Maglubiyet, while the site was steeped in the trappings of Incabulos' worship.  

After Curtis' game concluded, I grabbed a quick dinner, and then DM'd my twice-monthly home campaign, where the 4th-5th level PCs are currently engaged in selling some sacred gemstone eyes chiseled out of a hidden temple to Nerull in Castle Greyhawk; they're selling them back to the temple of Nerull in Dyvers, and it seems to be going well so far....

Saturday - 7 October 2023:  Ending on High Notes

Sunday morning I slept in a bit, and jumped back into the saddle at 11am to run my second session of "Halls of the Iron Golems."  This time the PCs started in the lower-right quadrant of the map, and explored north and west and northward to within sight of their goal by the end of the session!  Quick thinking during various encounters (with a glassteel skeleton golem that resonated when struck with melee weapons and thereby damaged its attackers, and a giant slug) and a relentless focus on making progress in the proper direction paid off :D

At the end, the party was foiled by an insidious sliding stair trap which split the party and dumped them into two skeletons-filled chambers:  one submerged in 12 feet of water (alas, three of the four PCs wore magical armor and the one PC who was in normal armor---and therefore sank like a rock---had a ring of swimming! ;) ), while the second was submerged in caustic and poisonous gas!  This particular trap was inspired by Dave S. LaForce's classic DMG illustration:

 

The skeletons attempted to hold the PCs in place under the water and within the gas, but were defeated in the end....

The "Ask the Experts" session traditionally concludes the convention, and featured Jay Scott and Anna Meyer as recurring hosts, with Roger Moore joining for the first time this year, and Denis "Maldin" Tetreault, Joe "Greyhawk Grognard" Bloch, and me rounding out the participants.  

Our discussion ranged widely over the course of the 2+ hours, and touched on several interesting topics, including:

• variant AD&D classes 
• sites/scenarios that deserve Return To modules
• modules most-in-need of salvaging
• Flanaess cities that deserve the boxed set treatment
• how we can bring more new fans to Greyhawk
• places/times to consider running a pre-576 CY campaign
• planar and temporal adventure ideas
• 50th anniversary D&D ideas and plans

Tune into the discussion to explore these and other topics and ideas!:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTuw04FDdGo

grodog's 2024 Convention Schedule

I'm still currently planning to attend GaryCon XVI (21-24 March), NTX (5-9 June), and vGHC (4-6 October) next year.  

Since I'm currently unfettered by a limited number of vacation days, I may try to extend my GaryCon trip to include the pre-con Founders & Legends events running 16-18 March too, but that's still a long time away from my family, and the additional hotel and meals costs are not trivial, so we'll see....

I am also hoping to align a trip to visit my family in South Jersey with the brand new Philadelphia Area Gaming Expo con, which runs 5-7 January 2024.   

We'll see how all of that works out in practice soon :D 

50th Anniversary of Dungeons & Dragons

As part of the Q&A around D&D's 50th anniversary next year, I am working to complete the publication of one of my Castle Greyhawk levels.  It probably won't be done in time for GaryCon in March but may be ready for North Texas in June. 

I'm also working on a high-level adventure submission for the No Artpunk III adventure design contest, which remains open through the end of November.  

Thanks Yous!

I'd like to thank Jay Scott, Josh Popp, Anna Meyer, and the rest of the virtual Greyhawk Con crew for putting the vGHC convention together---each fall it's a wonderful way to close out my conventions for the year, and it's always a pleasure to meet new fans of the setting and to game together in their versions of Greyhawk.

And a sincere thank you to the players in my regular campaigns, and for those who participate in my events at vGHC and GaryCon and North Texas each year.  The playtesting that we do together makes my DMing better and my events more fun, and that is always appreciated! =)

Allan.

Greyhawk News You Can Use in the Month of Planting!

Black Blade - GaryCon booth review at Black Gate

John O'Neill of Black Gate Magazine visited our Black Blade Publishing booth at GaryCon last month, and rote a very nice piece about the booth and the books at https://www.blackgate.com/2023/03/26/gary-con-report-black-blade-publishing-and-limitless-adventure/.

Allan working BBP's GaryCon booth
(photo by John O'Neill)

The article nicely updates John’s rediscovery of our booth back at GaryCon X at https://www.blackgate.com/2018/03/13/the-1001-treasures-of-black-blade-publishing-and-goodman-games-gary-con-2018-report-part-ii/.

It’s sometimes difficult to appreciate the breadth and depth of excellent content available in the greater old-school, OSR, and Greyhawk gaming communities, and John’s article does a great job summarizing the passion that we bring to this hobby. 

It’s a true pleasure to help introduce gamers to the myriad of wonderful books, adventure modules, fiction, and other fan-created projects at GaryCon and North Texas RPG Con each year.

 

Tonisborg Review, 2002 Gygax Video, and the Marmoreal Tomb Shambles into Unlife

Two news items via Trent Smith’s always-insightful blog, The Mystical Trash Heap:

1. Trent’s excellent review of The Lost Dungeons of Tonisborg, recently reprinted via Kickstarter by the Secrets of Blackmoor documentary team
   
   
2. A recently-rediscovered 2002 interview by Peter Michael Garcia with Gary Gygax at GameFest 2002 (Richmond, VA) at https://vimeo.com/809850827 (23 minutes):

2002 Peter Michael Garcia interview
with Gary Gygax

 

The video was shared on Facebook by Ernie Gygax, and Trent reshared it from there.

Ernie’s and Benoist Poire’s Marmoreal Tomb Kickstarter also began to ship product in March, after the long-delayed project was rescued through the assistance of Troll Lord Games, who completed production and fulfillment.  I wasn’t a backer, but the new books do look pretty good, per a picture that Anthony Huso shared recently from his blog:

 

The Marmoreal Tomb in all of its glory
(photo by Anthony Huso)

 

What’s Up in the Greyhawk Fan Community

The community has been pretty busy of late---creating, announcing, and delivering several new projects!:

• Ben Ball’s Peoples of the Flanaess download is at https://www.mediafire.com/file/zbmel607ngy0zfj/Peoples_of_the_Flanaess.pdf, and offers pre-defined lists of names for each of the 61 cultures, nations, and named regions in the World of Greyhawk. Each d30 table includes columns for female and male names, alignment, hair color, hair texture, complexion, and eye color.  Follow-up discussion is available at the Knights & Knaves Alehouse (where Ben also shared some brilliant encounter tables for Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea, too!).
  
  Ben’s work aligns nicely with the Greyhawk naming discussion on Canonfire! that Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez began, and which I mentioned in last month’s news update.
  
  
• The new Gulf of Ghayar Gazetteer can be downloaded at https://www.annabmeyer.com/2023/04/19/gulf-of-ghayar-gazetteer/.  Designed by Crag and supported by the Greyhawk fan commuinity, the 96 page PDF details the full scope of the Dramidj Oceanic region, located at the extreme northwest of the Flanaess, beginning at Ekbir and sweeping westar beyond.
  
  
•  Jay “LordGosumba” Scott, Anna Meyer, and I hosted another discussion with Rob Kuntz on Saturday morning, 22 April 2023---Earth Day, so perhaps we should have made it an Oerth Day chat, but we didn’t think of that and instead we discussed the origins, history, and continuing development of Rob’s player character, Lord Robilar (and a few other topics).  You can watch the recording on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1800551316 and on YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3mH6A85uMC8:
  
  
  
  
  And if you missed last month’s widely-ranging discussion with Rob, the recording is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGKXKPS6kA.
  
  
• Jay also recently announced the dates for Virtual Greyhawk Con 4:  this year it’s being held from 6-8 October 2023!:
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Last, but certainly not least, a new Greyhawk fanzine is in the offing, Visions of Greyhawk:
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  Evan “FormerlyKnownasNorker” Cummins announced the new zine on Canonfire! at http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=9716 with a pointer to this four-page download:  http://www.canonfire.com/visionsofgreyhawk/VisionsofGreyhawkProposal.pdf:
  
  

  VISIONS OF GREYHAWK is a new e-zine being made by and for World of Greyhawk enthusiasts. It will be hosted on Canonfire.com. As that website has done for the hobby for over two decades, this e-zine will present mini-modules, lore articles, reviews, new monsters and magic, and more, regardless of the version of the rules employed.

  
  Zine submissions opened on 15 April 2023, and Gary Holian added some commentary in the above Canonfire! announcement thread: 
  
  

  My two cents. The Oerth Journal continues to exist and we should be proud of of it as one of the longest running zines in fandom. But this is more about Canonfire and its new direction.
  
  I will be relaunching the [Canonfire!] site soon, with updated forums and using a modern Wordpress installation as a base. That should greatly improve the signup process and the search engine, both of which are functionally broken in many ways. We'll work on ways for people to discover and re-discover all the great content on this site.  [snip]
  
  Why the name Visions of Greyhawk? I suggested we choose a name that leaves no doubt what the content is about, targeted for people far and wide who are not just members of Canonfire, but it will be hosted and promoted on CF.

  
  The editorial team has been firming up as new community members volunteer to help support the zine, and currently includes (as of 19 April 2023):
  
  
  • PROJECT EDITOR: Ewan Cummins
  • CONSULTING EDITOR: Gary Holian
  • LAYOUT AND DESIGN: Lee Schaidle
  • ASSISTANT EDITORS: Gary “hedgeknight” Francisco

Visions of Greyhawk is still accepting volunteers for assistant editorial positions.  To volunteer your help in editing or layout and design, or to submit an article or a piece of artwork, emails visionsofgreyhawk@gmail.com.

Since the new zine is positioned as complimentary to the Oerth Journal rather than competitive with the OJ, I remain cautiously optimisti that the community can support multiple zines.  We’ll see!

 

And that’s all for the month of Planting!  Happy Oerth Day everyone (yet-again blogger ate my content yesterday afternoon, so this being posted a day late and a post short), and see you next time!

Allan.

GaryCon XV Convention Report - 21-27 March 2023

GaryCon XV has come and gone, and---as usual---I had a wonderful time at the convention playing AD&D, celebrating the life and games of Gary Gygax and the rest of the old-school guard, and catch up with friends old and new!

The Ugly, the Bad, and the Great

Perhaps unsurprisingly, the Ugly and the Bad won't take up too much space in this post, and The Great far outweighs these two, they remain important to share nonetheless. 

The Ugly: COVID

To get the Ugly out of the way first:  I caught COVID at GaryCon XV.  Because I worked the vendor hall at our Black Blade Publishing booth, I interacted with a LOT of folks at GaryCon, so I've shared this information as widely as I can on Facebook.

This is the message I sent to the players in my GaryCon XV games via TableTop Events messaging:

 

Hello Fellow GaryCon Gamers!---

As some of you will already be aware from my post on Facebook, I tested positive for COVID on Friday 31 March 2023 after presumably being exposed at the convention.  I had meant to send this out on Friday, but forgot, so if this is the first time you're hearing this news, I apologize.  

If you played in one of my GaryCon games, or visited the Black Blade Publishing booth, you may have been exposed too.  If we interacted, you should consider testing whether you're showing symptoms, or not.  (I was masked while working the booth on Saturday and Sunday of the convention after hearing rumors of COVID cases at GaryCon).  

The CDC guidelines on testing and isolation are at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/if-you-were-exposed.html and https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/your-health/isolation.html and have changed since I had last reviewed them.  For what it's worth, I tested negative twice on the evening of Monday 27 March and Wednesday 29 March before I tested positive four days after my return from Lake Geneva on Friday, 31 March.  

I hope that you remain healthy, that you recover quickly if you do get sick, and I look forward to gaming again together in the future!

Allan.

 
The Bad: Not Much!

With COVID out of the way, I don't have any significant complaints about the convention.  I was pretty tired after the con, and moreso than in years previously.  I attributed that initially and in particular to working the booth alone (it was about 6 hours to set up, and 4 hours to tear down), but some could have been COVID tiredness too. 

Dave Conant and Travis (a volunteer) did come by the booth while Jeff Talanian and I were chatting, and asked for feedback.  We spoke about noise in the louder events rooms, which is a recurring problem that's hard to solve.  

The only other possible complaint is the new location of the vendors hall in the Forum (this was the second year there), but we haven't crunched the numbers on our sales data yet to see how we did, so complaining would be quite premature ;) 

The Great:  all the rest! :D

Other than COVID, the rest of the of GaryCon was  awesome, as always.  

It's always a treat and a treasure to catch up with old friends, to meet folks for the first time who I've only known online via a username, and to game with both groups at the table. 

Black Blade Publishing booth and New Old-School Games!

Allan at the Black Blade Publishing
booth at GaryCon XV

Our Black Blade Publishing booth was one of mainstays in the hall.  It's always a pleasure to introduce gamers to wonderful works created by our friends and fellow designers.  You can browse through some pictures of the booth in my Facebook profile (they're publicly visible) in my GaryCon XV photo album, and John O'Neill of Black Gate Magazine also shared his walk-through pictures of our booth too---John's are more-current than mine, in fact, and show the booth in its "final form" from Saturday ;)

New products to highlight in the booth this year included:

• Black Blade's newest 17"x22" hexagonal mapping pads
• John Eric Holmes' Maze of Peril (his 1986 novella; this was placeholder stock until we reprint Tales of Peril) 
• Goodman Games' Original Adventures Reincarnated series, volumes 1-6, including OAR#6 The Temple of Elemental Evil, which also featured in Paul Stormberg's "Legends of Roleplaying" tournament on Friday night
  
• Lenard Lakofka's L3 Deep Dwarven Delve (along with a number of other TSR classics reprints)
  
• Richard Barton's The Halls of Arden Vul (we sold out of copies by Sunday!) 
• Alex Bates' Fire-Pearls of Aya-Ghan adventure
• Handy Haversack's The Hybrid Bone Effigy Crucible of the Urgent Chimera adventure
  
• Joe Bloch's Adventures Dark & Deep "Tomes" series:  Swords of Cthulhu, Adventures Great and Glorious, Book of Lost Lore, and Book of Lost Beasts
• Larry Wickman's Gamewick Games titles:  Pittsburgh 68, Roswell 51, and Innmouth 32
  

We also promoted new PDF-only products from Rob Kuntz' Three Line Studio (both Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws and Pryce's Price, his 50th anniversary of OD&D tributes to Gary Gygax), and Carlos Lising's Hounds of Oerth, a new casl Entertainment charity supplement supporting the ASPCA.

Other GaryCon XV New Releases and Acquisitions!

Anna Meyer's seminar handout,
two new Lenard Lakofka modules,
and more!

 

The Lenard Lakofka Archive announced the release of two new AD&D adventures, which are free to download from Anna Meyer's web site:  LA1 The Lighthouse and LA2 Devil's Dung. These are newly-published adventures written by Lenard and released to the public for free in PDF form.  I playtested a still-unpublished adventure ("Ravages of the Mind") at Virtual Greyhawk Con 3 last October, so keep an eye out for more new Lakofka materials in the future!  And thank you to the archive team for their hard work---these modules wouldn't exist without time time, talent, and treasure donated by Troy Alleman, Daniel Boggs, Richard Di Iola, Anna Meyer, Josh Popp, Lee Schaidle, Dan Smith, and of course to Lenard Lakofka.

Anna B. Meyer shared her 2023 cartography seminar handout at https://www.annabmeyer.com/2023/03/12/gary-con-xv-handout/ and it's gorgeous!  Anna has many new projects coming this year, including new Greyhawk and Meyerhawk heraldry, and updates to many of her maps including her new Oerth v2 project!  Anna also took the time out of her busy schedule to deliver my copies of Lenard's new modules; thanks Anna! :D

In addition to the above highlights, I also picked up a copy of some old homebrewed character sheets from Shawn and Devon Hibbs at their Die Cast Games booth (the Burntwire Brothers, as they're known among the Acaeum crowd).  I had bought the exact same set from them last year, so I'll be opening the shrink wrap on one of them to see what's on the backs of the sheets.

Zach "Zenopus Archives" Howard also graciously gifted me with a 5e handout that Steve Marsh provided at one of his games at the North Texas RGP Con.  It had caught my eye because it includes a new class that's oriented toward shadow magic (which was first professional gaming publication way back in 1987 in White Wolf Magazine #11).  Thanks Zach! :D

COVID Comforts for grodog

While I've been isolating at home, in addition to reading some of the goodies above, I've also been re-reading Roger Zelazny's second Chronicles of Amber series, which focuses on Corwin's son Merlin.  On my last trip to NJ I had picked up Seven Tales in Amber, which collects Roger's last stories in the series (primarily his short stories from Amberzine).  

The Merlin stories have lately been scrabbling aroud in my backbrain, along with Anthony Huso's Night Wolf Inn (recently given a five-star review from Prince of Nothing at Age of Dusk), so I read through them the past few days while isolating:

COVID comforts for grodog

"Where there's a whip, there's a way..."

My reading pile also includes a new-to-me puzzle dungeon entitled Aberrant Reflections.  I haven't fully read it yet, but the publisher is directsun Games, and I hope to carry them in our booth in the future.

John Popson of Effincool Miniatures also hand-delievered a box of wonderful Rankin-Bass-inspired goblins above, which I will to paint and mix in gleefully with my Max Carr Dungeon Dwellers goblins from Heritage :D  Thanks John!

The last title I leave you with is a book that was recommended to me by Eli Elder, and it looks like it'll fit in quite nicely in my 1:1 solo aquatic Greyhawk campaign with my son Henry:

 

I don't have a copy of this in-hand (yet!), but Knight Owl Publishing's Aquatic Adventures looks like a winner based on my flip-through of Eli's copy at the con. 

Until the next time, when I'll provide a run-through of the games I DM'd at GaryCon XV.

Allan.

Special Guest Interview with Rob Kuntz livestream on LordGosumba's Gabbin' #236

Jay Scott---with Anna Meyer and me also participating---interviewed Rob Kuntz on Jay's Gabbin' at Lord Peak's Haven #236 livestream show yesterday morning.  The show came together very quickly, so I didn't have time to announce it ahead of time.  If you missed it live, you can watch the recordings on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1748868999 and YouTube at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hmGKXKPS6kA (video below links to YouTube):

 

 

Discussion References

Our widely-ranging discussion delved into various aspects of OD&D and Greyhawk's playtesting and early publishing history, including (among other topics):

1. The original, now alas lost, Greyhawk campaign map drawn by Gary (lost by Chris Schleicher, who printed the Domesday Book newsletters for the Castles & Crusades Society): 

Domesday Book Great Kingdom map
by Dave Megarry

Domesday Book Great Kingdom map
by Dave Arneson (and colored by grodog)

 

The lost map was 8.5"x11" in portrait orientation (not landscape) featured more text and graphical/artistic detail than the two above, and was in Gary's handwriting. 

That map would have chronologically been developed somewhere between the above two Domesday Great Kingdom maps and the art order sketch maps that Darlene used for the Folio poster maps (and which survive in photocopy form from Lenard Lakofka's archives):

 

Darlene's published
1980 Greyhawk Folio maps

 

For some excellent analysis and discussion about the original Castle & Crusade Society Great Kingdom maps, see these additional resources:

• Dan "Aldarron" Boggs' blog at http://boggswood.blogspot.com/search/label/Greyhawk (and Dan's blog is a wonderful resource for all things Blackmoor-related as well!) 
• Zach "Zenopus Archives" Howard's blog at https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2014/01/the-land-of-great-kingdom-and-environs.html and https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2017/02/megarrys-copy-of-great-kingdom-map.html 
• The Secrets of Blackmoor documentary at https://www.secretsofblackmoor.com/  
  

2. You can read the full text of Gary Gygax's letter in Alarums & Excursions #15 (15 October 1976) at Jason Zavoda's blog "Gygax's Letter in Alarums and Excursions #15" and Jason had transcribed additional Gygax letters at https://jasonzavoda-hallofthemountainking.blogspot.com/search?q=alarums&max-results=20&by-date=true.

 

3. Arnold Hendrick's full 1974 review of OD&D from The Courier Volume 6 #6 (1974) appears below:

 

Gary's rebuttal to the review appears in The Strategic Review #3 (Fall 1975).

For some additional discussion and commentary, see ENWorld at https://www.enworld.org/threads/a-typewritten-d-d-review-from-1974-by-arnold-hendrick.661641/ and Paul's Blog of Holding at https://www.blogofholding.com/?p=5769.

 

4. "The Gnome Cache" is Gary's incomplete novella published serially (as "Garrison Ernst") in The Dragon #1, #2, #3, #5, #6, and #7 from June 1976 through June 1977:

5. The rules for the "Siege of Bodenburg" were first published by Henry H. Bodenstedt in Strategy & Tactics Volume 1 #6 (July 1967) and were subsequently freely distributed from his Adelphia, New Jersey games and hobby store to help sell the Elastolin Miniatures that he imported. 

The rules used to be freely downloadable at http://www.thortrains.net/armymen/bodebok1.html but that site is now gone, and is not available via the Internet Archive, so I've uploaded the rules to my site at [TBD].

For some additional information about Bodenburg's relationship to Castle Greyhawk, see Zenopus Archives at https://zenopusarchives.blogspot.com/2015/03/visualizing-castle-greyhawk.html and for some historical context about the Siege of Bodenburg game, seehttps://en-academic.com/dic.nsf/enwiki/2650436. 

I'll try to find the pictures of me playing "Siege of Bodenburg" from my GaryCon photo albums, and add here too.

 

Online Stores for Rob Kuntz Books

We discussed several of the gaming books that Rob authored and designed over the years, and many are still in-print and available:

• Rob's most-recent works are spread out across a few different publishing imprints, but are all accessible from:
• Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws, Pryce's Price, and free newsletter at  https://www.threelinestudio.com/
• LR1 Beyond the Living Room (from Castle Greyhawk) at https://www.legendsofroleplaying.com/
• El Raja Key Archive, Dave Arneson's True Genius, The Game That Changed Everything, Merlynd the Magician, K1 The Sunken City, and poster maps at https://www.tlbgames.com/ 
• LGCC-1 The Original Bottle City (from Castle Greyhawk), RJK-1 Cairn of the Skeleton King, and RJK-2 Tower of Blood are available from us at Black Blade Publishing, both via mail order or direct from our booths at GaryCon and North Texas RPG Con each year. 
  
  We also stock all of Rob's in-print titles from Paul at GaryCon and North Texas RPG Con.
  

Additional References

Rob's most-current biography is on his TLS site at https://www.threelinestudio.com/bio/.

"A Partial, Annotated Bibliography of the Works of Robert J. Kuntz" appears on Canonfire! at  http://www.canonfire.com/cf/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=125 (and is mirrored on my Greyhawk site, but I think my copy is not as current as the Canonfire! one).  Both are likely in need of updating, and also provide some good insight into the contents of Rob's El Raja Key Archive.

Canonfire! also hosts "Rob Kuntz's The Three Artifacts of the Demon Senders," which was first published in Wargaming #2 in 1977. 

 

 

Enjoy! :D

Allan.

Greyhawk News to Warm Your Readying Hearts

Fun in the World of Greyhawk at Canonfire!

Lots of hustle and bustle in the Flanaess of late, so we'll jump right into the latest Greyhawk News you can use:

• In the Canonfire! site's discussion forums, Marc-Tizoc Gonzalez (mtg as we know him) began an excellent thread "Names Derived from Deities," in which he puts some much-needed thought into how common names in the Flanaess would be influenced by the names of the various gods, goddesses, heroes, and heroines of the land. 
  
  
• Marc riffed on many of the existing names of the gods to create variations that could be the equivalent of modern-day names like Mary, Joseph, Mark, Luke, Michael, et al., and his work inspired several others (including me) to add to the growing list.  Check it out, and add your own ideas!
  
  
• David Prata's "The Amazons of Hardby" attempts to reconcile the warrior-women of Hardby (as championed by Deirdre in Gygax's Artifact of Evil novel---she appears on the cover which I included in my recent Why Greyhawk? post) with the Amazons entry dropped from the 1983 Monster Manual 2 and published in the Polyhedron #22 (January 1985).  The discussion aligns quite nicely with my own campaign's focus in the vicinity Hardby via my Random Encounter Table for Hardby---although I treat Amazons a bit differently than EGG's versions---with some related discussion on Facebook.
  

Charity Events Abound

Jay Scott's 5th Annual Greyhawk Megastream Fundraiser for St. Jude Children's Research Hospital began on Thursday this week:  

 

LordGosumba's 5th Annual charity fundraiser
for St. Jude's Children's Research Hospital

Donations can be made at https://tiltify.com/+greyhawk-community-streamers/5th-annual-greyhawk-megastream-fundraiser-event-legends and see https://www.facebook.com/groups/40230212669/posts/10159706400557670/ for additional details.

 

In addition, Carlos Lising's caslEntertainment will soon be announcing a new charity adventure module, which will provide donations to the ASPCA.  

I've participated in two of Carlos's charity streaming adventures in the past, and fully endorse his giving back to the community.  The Tears that Forever Stain supports the Cheetah Conservation Fund, while Lost Dog supports Red Rover.  (Both links take you to his adventure books, which support the charities themselves through purchases of the modules). 

And last, but not least, GaryCon's charity auction is helmed by the indomitable Jim Kitchen, and Jim is seeking donations for the GaryCon 2023 charity auction:

Please think about donating things for the auction. Gary Con attendees have always been generous beyond measure with their donations and the proceeds from auctioning them has made a difference in lives far beyond Lake Geneva.

The Charity auction at Gary Con is bigger than any single one of us. It's the people who make it happen, who donate and who bid that are the three equal parts of what is one of the best parts of the show. 

Jim Kitchen, auctioneering for charity
at GaryCon 2022

 

This year's auction will support Extra Life and Children's Wisconsin (formerly Milwaukee Children's Hospital), and you can read a summary about the 2022 Charity Auction too.

Rob Kuntz - Two New Releases Celebrate D&D's 50th!

On 1 February 2023, Rob Kuntz announced the publication of two new titles from his Three Line Studios company, as well as a 30 page free fan update newsletter!  

 

Rob Kuntz's newest adventure,
Pryce's Price

 

The two new books---one an adventure, the other a collection of magic items and essays---celebrate the 50th anniversary of the creation and playtesting of the game, which began in 1973.  (D&D wasn't published until January 1974 or thereabouts). 

• Pryce's Price:  a new 57 page AD&D 1e adventure for PCs of levels 9-11 in which they delve a wizard's haunted basement to recover various and sundry items lost within its depths.  The module is also a tribute to the 1963 Roger Corman film "The Raven" starring Vincent Price, Boris Karloff, and Peter Loree---an obviously inspired by Poe's poem of the same name.  $12 from the TLS web site.

• Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws:  a new 36 page collection of AD&D 1e magic items and essays that pay tribute to Gary Gygax.  (For reference, a gewgaw---which I'm more familiar with as a geegaw, but they are several variants for the term---is "a flashy, useless ornament; a bauble" according to my Funk & Wagnalls dictionary).  In this collection of 17 new magic items (including one new spell), none are trinkets and 5 are artifacts!  Rob concludes Gargax's Glorious Gewgaws with the essay "Some Influences Related to E.G.G. in Creating (and Play-Testing) D&D"---an eight-page discussion about the inspirational origins for various elements of Original Dungeons & Dragons and the Greyhawk and Kalibruhn campaigns.  $8 from the TLS web site.
  

Notably, both books can be ordered in a bundle at 25% off---quite the bargain!

The three new releases (counting the substantive newsletter) are in addition to Rob's most-recent adventure, Beyond the Living Room, published in 2020 via Paul Stormberg's Legends of Roleplaying imprint, and TLB Games, which published Dave Arenson's True Genius and the El Raja Key Archive (among other titles). 

Rob mentions that he will release additional books throughout 2023 to continue his celebration for D&D.  You can keep up on additional Three Line Studio releases by signing up for the TLS mailing list:  email mailinglist@threelinestudio.com with "Subscribe" in the subject line.

grodog on "L&L" Discussing Greyhawk's Planes

I recently appeared on Lord Gosumba's "Legends & Lore" episode about "Extra-Planar Influences" (in Greyhawk, of course).  Jay Scott, Anna Meyer, and Mike Bridges, steered the conversationa and I joined in after a late dinner an hour-in or so.  

We had a fun and widely-ranging discussion about the planes in general, planar architecture, planar incursions/invasions, gods and the source for divine powers, among many inter-related topics.

 

Extra-Planar Influences in Greyhawk,
with Jay, Anna, Mike, and Allan

 

You can watch the replays on YouTube at  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6Z_5c5QDTU or on Twitch at https://www.twitch.tv/videos/1732534574.

GaryCon Events Registration Open!

GaryCon events registration is open this weekend on Saturday, 18 February 2023 for Gold badge holders, and the following weekend on Saturday, 25 February 2023 for Silver badge holders.  Additional timeline details for other badge types are at https://tabletop.events/conventions/gary-con-xv.  

My two personal events have registrants in them already, but more than half of the seats are still open.  Here are the entries if you'd like to register:

• LEGIO V—Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk Level Keyed by grodog - Thursday @ 7pm
• LEGIO V—Gary Gygax's Castle Greyhawk Level Keyed by grodog - Saturday @ 7pm

On Friday night I'm helping Paul Stormberg by DMing a table of the Legends of Roleplaying tourney, along with Allen Hammack, Steve Winter, Harold Johnson, Victor Raymond, Doug Behringer, and several other volunteer DMs.  

If you'd like to register, Legends of Roleplaying Tournament: Ruins of Elder Evil runs on Friday night at 6pm.

Allan.

grodog's Virtual Greyhawk Con 3 Report!

Hola folks---

As usual, I had a wonderful time at Virtual Greyhawk Con again this year, the convention's third annual installment of Flan-flinging fun!  

I ran three games, played in two, and participated in the closing panel again, which made for a very fun, but also very full weekend (30 Sept to 2 Oct 2022).

Friday Night Only, Alas

I had registered to play in Jay Hafner's 5e version of the Dragon Magazine classic adventure "Citadel by the Sea" (designed by Sid Fisher, from issue #78):

 

"Citadel by the Sea"---
artwork by Roger Raupp

My thought had been that it would be cool to kick the tires on 5e for the first time in a scenario I knew pretty well, with a DM I kn0w from the days of Greytalk.  Unfortunately work conspired to keep me away from Jay's table on Friday morning, but my empty spot filled up quickly, so he still ran with a full table (which I'm thankful for!).  Perhaps next year, Jay!

Friday night, I DM'd Carlos Lising's adventure, G2 The Witch Queen's Lament, and it was quite fun.  It's always a pleasure to get to play a high-level villain, and Iggwilv is certainly one of my favorites! :D

We ran through Carlos' adventure tourney-style, and while the players were not able to complete the mission, they did plumb the depths of the vile wizard's lair that Iggwilv set them upon:

 

Your PCs are forcibly recruited by the Witch Queen of Perrenland and geased to perform a mission on her behalf. Will you succeed and find mercy as Iggwilv restores your freedom, or will you fail in your quest and and suffer eternal consequences beyond mere death? Set in the World of Greyhawk and its planes, AD&D 1e/OSRIC pregen PCs of levels 6-9 are provided.

==

Such is the notoriety of the dread Witch-Queen that mothers speak of her wicked deeds to frighten their unruly children into obedience. These legends are hardly tall tales. Indeed, the Witch-Queen is very real – the staggering bloodshed spilled as she led a demonic army to conquer a mighty nation a testimony to her existence. And yet, for all her power and vile deeds, the Witch-Queen grows pensive in her fell manor in Sarendathos, faced with a mystery whose subject has cut all too close to her dark heart. Can your PCs find a solution to that which vexes her...before the world again trembles beneath her wrath?

Written by Carlos Lising of casl Entertainment, this adventure module was the official tournament adventure for GrogCon 2021, and is written for the OSRIC™ rules (ADVANCED DUNGEONS & DRAGONS 1st edition compliant).

Bring your graph paper, dice, and a healthy dose of paranoid courage! Game will be hosted in Webex, via Theatre of the Mind.

G2 The Witch Queen's Lament---
cover art by Daniel Govar

I changed-up the introduction and structure of the adventure a bit, but otherwise ran it using Carlos' baseline.  Carlos set the scenario in the tundra badlands north of the Burneal Forest and south of the Land of Black Ice.  Definitely makes we me want to revisit the region in the future, and to explore a bit more with Baba Yaga, Iggwilv, and the rest of the extended family.  Carlos ended up sitting in during session, which was a treat too.  

The players had fun, I had fun, and I bet you would too if you ran it!

 

Saturday

On Saturday morning and early afternoon, I played in Michael Mossbarger's "The Brokenstone Alliance" and that evening I DM'd WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure by Rob Kuntz. 

Michael "The Brokenstone Alliance" had an interesting premise, and was set in Ratik---an area of Greyhawk I've not explored much as a DM or as a player (although we did recently attend a trial there in Bill Silvey's Monday night Greyhawk campaign)---which is what drew me to his adventure:

What do an emissary from an ancient dwarven clan, an earthquake, and a dwarf who died of no apparent wounds have to do with each other? Lots if you’re trying to protect the northern borders of Nyrond. Travel to the Flinty Hills and The Rakers to solve this mystery with characters level 7-9. (Thanks to Wm. H. Dvorak and his Bone March Companion for the ideas that form the basis of this adventure). This will use mostly OSRIC rules with additional homebrew rules and "Lord Gosumba" character classes. Will be using my Discord channel set up / invites will be sent the week before.

I played Abratic Black, a Magic-User 9 with a wand of lightning and wand of illumination, a scroll of 3 spells (friends, haste, dimension door), a potion of water breathing, and a nice assortment of spells.  The PCs were on a mission for King Lyndwerd of Nyrond (and had previously served him in other scenarios) to act as ambassadorial explorers in the Nyrond's name.  

Michael ran his game online using Owlbear.Rodeo, which is not a platform I'd used previously.  It was pretty cool, but, alas, I didn't capture any screenshots from Michael's prepared materials, which were definitely good-looking! 

We were able to complete the mission, although we did run a bit long over time (perhaps 20 minutes or so?). 

WG5 Mordenkainen's Fantastic Adventure is one of my favorite D&D adventures of all time, and is one of Rob Kuntz's finest designs.

 

WG5 by Rob Kuntz---
cover art by Jeff Easley

 

For this adventure, I added two more player characters to the mix of pregens originally published in the module:  Otis (Ranger 9) and Lord Robilar (Fighter 12) joined Mordenkainen (Magic-User 12), Bigby (Magic-User 10), Yrag (Fighter 9), and Riggby (Cleric 9)

The PCs explored the first level of the dungeons (we didn't make it into any of the Maure Castle levels, alas), encountering various and sundry dungeon features and inhabitants throughout.  They did manage to meet and defeat the Terrible Iron Golem through some savvy play (although Bigby was turned to stone!), which is not a feat I've seen replicated most times I've run the adventure. 

 

Sunday

In the morning, Josh Popp ran an unpublished adventure designed by Lenard Lakofka---"The Ravages of the Mind":

 

Lenard Lakofka's final adventure. Journey into Ratik's Timberway to root out a growing malignancy. An AD&D adventure for characters level 3-5, pregens provided. Content Warning: kidnapping.

Lenard Lakofka's unpublished
"Ravages of the Mind"---
non-final cover art by Syedafarrwa (Farva)

 

I played Oben, a Cleric 5 of Phaulkon, as we explored the remains of a Temple to Llerg still manned by its high priest after it was ransacked by orcs 30 years back.  The high priest had been slowly growing more strange over the years, and kidnapped a local woman and her little girl who looked like his wife and daughter slain when the temple was sacked.  Things went from bad to worse as we explored deeper into the environs and temple!

Josh also DM'd using Owlbear.Rodeo, and I did remember to capture some highlights during the adventure:

 

Marner region of Ratik--
Cartography by Anna Meyer

and

Temple of Llerg Wilderness Environs

and

 

Temple Compound

We explored about half of the temple compound, slew of bunch of orcs, but were not able to find and rescue the missing townsfolk from Layakeel before the session ended.   We also never discovered the dungeon level, either, but had a great time playing through the adventure!

After Josh's scenario, I had an hour to eat lunch before running Erik Mona's "River of Blood"---one of the earliest Living Greyhawk scenarios published BITD:

 

The Millstream runs red with the blood of the abducted children of Greyhawk's lower class, triggering memories of a crisis thought averted long ago.

Create your own 1st level AD&D PC to play in this classic Living Greyhawk scenario designed by Erik Mona.

 

Eric's adventure was in part inspired by the NPC description of Sir Bluto Sans Pite from Lawrence Schick's S2 White Plume Mountain:  

S2 White Plume Mountain---
by Lawrence Schick

 

The background information is a bit more extensive in the adventure, and paints a chilling picture of the hellish nightmare that the PCs stumble into:

 

The River of Blood

26 years ago a noble of the city was implicated in a series of crimes so horrendous that news of the foul event spread as far as Ratik*, confirming provincial wisdom that the city of Greyhawk was good for two things alone:  corruption and death.

The scandal began with teh dispppearance of eight children, scions of nobles and wealthy merchants....

The criminal behind the abductions made himself known in a hideously violent act of confession. Merchants travelling east on High Street from the High Market to the Duke's Gate noticed it first.  The waters of the Millstream, the thin creek that runs throughout nearly the entire city, ran red with blood.

 

(*And there it is again!  Apparently it was a Ratik-themed convention for me!).

"River of Blood" was the first of two Living Greyhawk scenarios that Erik published in his "Absolute Power" series (the second was "As He Lay Dying"), but the rest of the adventures remain locked behind Erik's eyes (for the moment---he did state later that he was itching to DM some Greyhawk again, so if we're lucky perhaps he might consider working on the series some more as part of his new campaign!). 

The six PCs were brand-new first level AD&D characters, with a good mix of martial classes (three human fighters, one dwarf fighter, one human thief, and one human cleric of Heironeous), but not an MU among them!   They were able to rescue the missing child (although they didn't solve the larger mystery of her disappearance and capture) and save the day, which is as good an outcome as any level 1 character could hope for!

 

The convention concluded with the Greyhawk "Ask the Experts" Panel, hosted by Jay Scott, with Joe Bloch, Eric Boyd, Anna Meyer, Erik "Iquander" Mona, Denis Tetreault, and me as the panel guests: 

 

 

The recording is available on YouTube, as are all of the streamed games from the convention:

 

"A room full of liches, other than Anna"
quipped some wag in the chat ;)

We had a great chat that ranged through a number of fun topics, including:

• Castle Greyhawk and the City of Greyhawk
• Stoink
• Elminster being mentioned in passing in Ivid the Undying
• L6 and other unpublished Lenard Lakofka materials
• Favorite non-TSR scenarios to use in Greyhawk
• How to change-up the Greyhawk Wars
• Favorite Dragon Magazine ad products
• and more!
  

It was a fun discussion, and a great way to round out the convention weekend!

Allan.